Epistolary poem

An epistolary poem, also called a verse letter or letter poem,[1] is a poem in the form of an epistle or letter.

History

Epistolary poems date at least as early as the Roman poet Ovid (43 BC – 17 or 18 AD), who wrote the Heroides (The Heroines) or Epistulae Heroidum (Letters of Heroines), a collection of fifteen epistolary poems presented as though written by a selection of aggrieved heroines of Greek and Roman mythology, addressing their heroic lovers who have in some way mistreated, neglected, or abandoned them. Ovid extended this with the Double Heroides consisting of three separate exchanges of paired epistles, one each from a heroic lover to his absent beloved and from the heroine in return.

A number of epistolary poems were published as separate works in England during the so-called "Long Eighteenth Century", i.e., about 1688 - 1815.

Examples

Examples of epistolary poems include:

See also

References

  1. John Drury, The Poetry Dictionary, 2d ed. 2005, p. 332


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